Business conversations in French

[kamiel]

Hello,

I'm new to the language learners' forum, so I hope I do everything according to the rules.

I’m looking for a website or an online library where I can listen to actual French people having "business" conversations at work. As I sometimes need to talk to French speaking colleagues at work this would help me a lot. But I prefer real conversations to French audio courses, as I think the former are more authentic.

For example, I find the emails associated with the French presidential campaign of Emmanual Macrona that were published by Wikileaks actually a good source to learn writing business emails in French. https://wikileaks.org/macron-emails/

So, now I'm looking for something similar for verbal conversations.

Many thanks in advance.

[Speakeasy]

Bienvenu au forum, Kamiel! I look forward to reading your contributions on matters of interest to you. As to your specific question, I suggest that you visit youtube.com and type "Business French" in the search function. Youtube will offer you a selection of sub-classifications such as:

French Business Conversations: Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=business+french+conversation

In addition, while I have not searched the files of the two widely-known pay-for-view online video language-learning services, I suggest that you consider a one-month trial subscription with either of ...

FluentU
https://www.fluentu.com/

or

Yabla (French)
https://french.yabla.com/

Finally, although you seem somewhat averse to using conventional language courses, I suggest that you purchase at least one such course devoted to Business French, if only to familiarise yourself with the vocabulary. There are dozens of such courses available and I assume that you can locate them by searching the major online booksellers' websites.

Bon courage (vas-y, t'es capable!)

EDITED:
Typos, wie immer!

[Mohave]

Assimil Business French is sadly out-of-print, but you can find copies now and then on eBay, etc. I haven't done this course yet, but I have heard wonderful things about it and plan to do it myself down the road. Because it is older, I would expect any words related to technology would be dated.

[Speakeasy]

... I prefer real conversations to French audio courses, as I think the former are more authentic ...

As an addendum to my first response, I would say that "real conversations" may be (or may seem to be) "more authentic" than French Business Courses, but it all depends on what is being discussed, by whom, and in what context. To elaborate at little, ...

I worked for over 25 years, in Quebec, for a multi-national company having operations in over 60 countries. I began my career with this company in the Finance department of a production plant, I transferred to the Production department, and I finished by career at the company's Head Office in a production/technical/financial capacity in the Sales & Marketing department. With the exception of the occasional telephone discussion in English with someone from either the United States or Europe, the overwhelming portion of my "business discussions", or any other discussions for that matter, took place in French only.

Now then, it would be reasonable to assume that my "business discussions" in the various capacities in which I served would have been heavily-laden with "business jargon" and, to a limited extent, I would have to admit that they were. However, I would adjust the "business jargon assumption" by saying that much of my "business discussions" involved the use of vocabulary which was very specific to the industry in which my employer operated. Yes, there existed a common vocabulary related to the notions of customer orders and invoicing, production, pricing, profit analysis, and so forth. However, these concepts tended to be taken-for-granted and existed as a "backdrop" whereas the "business discussions" (and I was involved in them on a daily basis at the company's Head Office) were very heavily-laden with terminology which was unique to the industry.

I make mention of my own experience in "French-language Business Discussions" both in support of your assertion that they are "more authentic" and as a reminder that participants in such discussions may use vocabulary which is unique to their industry and which is useful in their own particular context, but which may not be of any use in another context. For this reason, with a view to familiarising yourself with the "common business jargon", I would encourage you to study a French Business Course and I would suggest that you seek out videos wherein the "business discussions" take place in a context that you are likely to encounter (I say this in full knowledge that locating such videos will not be easy).

EDITED:
Tinkering.
Typos.

[rdearman]

French like English in business is almost overwhelmingly industry specific. For example in Retail your going to have things like WSSI (Weekly Sales & Stock Intake), Forwarders, Replen, anchor tenant, EPOS, ASN's, EDI, POS, EAN, SKU's, Gondolas, GMROII, LP (Loss Prevention), ERP, CRM, and many many more!

So realistically other than basic stuff like meetings, agenda, and other things you'll probably need to look to your own industry for specific terms. Your colleagues might be your best source of information.

[Edan3]

Hello! Last week I've found an interesting article on the topic "How to ace a job interview in French" which goes: "Job interviews in French tend to be more formal than what you might be used to, especially if you come from an Anglophone country. They tend to be straight to the point, focused on the job being discussed, without any chit-chat from the get-go." If you're interested, then here is full version: https://www.talkinfrench.com/french-job-interview/